October 12, 2009

If you include the playoffs, Brady was 1-5 coming into this game against the Denver Broncos in his career. As a matter of fact, it's the only NFL team against which he has a losing record.

If you count today's game, that total is now 1-6.

Somehow we've gotten used to the Patriots falling on their faces against Denver. I don't think I'll ever completely scrub the memory of the 2006 playoff game against the Broncos from my brain, especially not the part where hundreds of people at the Sports Depot in Allston screamed like we were all on a sinking ship as Champ Bailey ran that INT back for a touchdown...

Sorry, where was I? Right--today's similarly sucky game, although, in fairness, the Patriots were more competitive today, driving the game into overtime, where they lost by a field goal.

Like the Jets game in Week 2, this game was marked by pressure from the opposing defense; the Broncos didn't seem to be rushing the house on every play the way the Jets did, but the offensive line let them get to Brady plenty. In fact, he was sacked in this game; surprisingly, he wasn't against the Jets.

However, the Patriots were able to earn yards in both the passing and rushing game.

As seems to be Patriots-Broncos tradition at Mile High, there was at least one egregious refereeing call on New England that arguably set the Broncos up for success--in this instance an utterly ridiculous "taunting" call on Brandon Meriweather when the referee pulled his flag out before the play was even over. "Taunting" was only settled on after a conference between a few refs. Sure, that seems legit.

However, you never lose a game solely because of officiating. You just don't.

And of course the other guys are playing, too, and our defense broke one time too many, though that didn't seem to affect their self-esteem any. It never ceases to amaze me that a coach with a reputation for discipline like Belichick allows such excessive celebration by our defensive backs as they seem to get away with week after week. In particular, Tully Banta-Cain really bugged me today, dancing and cheering for himself after sacking Kyle Orton, neglecting to remember that just a few minutes earlier he and his fellow Patriots defenders had surrendered the tying points.

However, the bottom line is that both defenses gave up equal points in the first 60 minutes.

Offensively, Laurence Maroney continues to frustrate -- today he saw playing time
again early on, got blown up at least once for the second week in a row
on a blocking scheme, and put up a grand total of 21 yards (to Sammy
Morris's 68.

However, the Patriots and Broncos finished the game fairly
close in net rushing yards -- New England had 97 vs. Denver's 93.

No, the most glaring differential, much as it pains me to say it, was the passing game. Brady went 19/33 for 215 yards, his lowest total of the season so
far by a yard. He went 216 yards in the loss against the Jets,
where he also had a lower completion percentage--48 percent to this
week's 57 percent.

But today, on the other side of the ball, Kyle Orton racked up 330 yards with a 72 percent completion percentage.

This week, you couldn't just blame it on defensive pressure or Joey
Galloway (inactive today)--this week, there were times Brady flat-out
missed open receivers. In particular I'm thinking of a blatant
overthrow of a wide-open Moss in the end zone late in the first
quarter, and another deep incompletion he was lucky not to have
intercepted in the third quarter, and the fourth quarter pass Wes
Welker and Champ Bailey spent a few heart-stopping seconds batting
around before neither of them recovered the ball.

And then there was the fumble with less than two minutes to go in regulation, which came as Brady was sacked.

It pains me to say it, but it's true: this week our Golden Boy gets the Golden Sombrero. If any one player's performance should be looked to as the reason for losing this game, it's Brady's. Yes, you can argue Gostkoswki, who missed what turned out to be a crucial field goal, but really, it was Brady who was most inconsistent today, and Brady who left the scoring to Gostkowski in that crucial spot rather than converting for a touchdown.

You have to wonder just what the problem is. He has now lost to Denver at home, away, against different opposing coaches, playing under different offensive coordinators, with high amounts of personnel turnover on both teams since he first began his career. It seems like a silly question, but could it be the altitude? Is it psychological--is that night of Champ Bailey horror still stuck in his head, too?

Just what is Brady's issue with the Broncos?

Or is it a Brady issue, particular to this season, that goes deeper than that? He looked to be showing some of his old magic in Week 1 against Buffalo, but in the other games this season he and the rest of the offense have frequently been frustrating to watch.

October 24, 2008

After published reports said Brady needed two more operations to clean out an infection in his knee, ESPN.com, citing a source it did not identify, reported that "the Patriots, as an organization, are upset with the situation because they were clear that they wanted Brady's surgery done under the direction of doctors of their choosing in Boston."

Later Thursday, the Patriots issued a statement affirming their support for the quarterback...

Moreover, while the patella tendon used the first time was from the same (left) knee, according to the source, Ramappa indicated that when a second reconstruction is required, the patella tendon would either come from the patient's other knee or a cadaver.

The general preference is to use the other knee, Ramappa said. So technically, if the decision was made to use the tendon from Brady's right knee, the MVP quarterback would be recovering from surgery on both knees.

Herald article also quotes an expert saying the decision to operate at the earliest possible time doctors would allow probably led to the surgical complications.

When we see Brady off the field these days, he's behind a thick gloss of superstardom, airbrushed Stetson ads and perfectly cliched press conferences and a pleasant demeanor with interviwers. But on the field there are times we've caught glimpses of the hypercompetitive Brady, the Brady that celebrates Super Bowl first downs and once trash-talked in the face of the Steelers secondary. The Brady that sometimes gets picked off and run back to the opposite goal line by Champ Bailey because he was trying to force a ball into the end zone.

Pretty easy for that Herald expert to Monday-morning quarterback these as yet unconfirmed reports on medical decisions. But also impossible to dismiss the idea that Brady might have tried to force a comeback too quickly.

Elsewhere, the sense of finality about Rodney Harrison being carted off the field on Monday Night was confirmed. Sammy Morris missing multiple practices. Oy vey.

September 22, 2008

When I argued that this is not a lost season for the Patriots shortly after Tom Brady went down, the relative ease of their schedule this year, especially early on, was something I took into account. Miami at home has been all but a lock over the last few years; while I knew it wouldn't be a cakewalk, I wasn't expecting this.

Neither, it seemed, were many of my fellow Patriots fans, who flooded talk radio yesterday afternoon with their views on exactly who lost the game. To my consternation, and that of the radio hosts I was listening to, there was a vocal faction wanting to ship out Matt Cassel and give Kevin O'Connell a shot under center.

Call me a quarterback apologist, but I didn't see this loss as Cassel's fault. At least, not totally.It's true he faltered in the red zone, as he had against the Jets (luckily 1,000 field goals were enough to beat them). The Tuna's defense kept him shuffling between the 20s all day, not something that would've happened to Brady.

However, Cassel also doesn't seem to be getting much protection. You could argue that Brady just made it look like he had more time because of his calm style, or hid a multitude of blocking sins with his mobility in the pocket, but there were times yesterday Cassel didn't even have a second to set his feet. Then there was Randy Moss, shutting it down in the third quarter and showing shades of his old self.

And to lay it all on the backup QB would amount to a grossly unfair overlooking of the defense yesterday, which played as if opposing runningbacks were invisible.† There's plenty of blame to go around - one analysis I've seen attributes the effectiveness of the Dolphins' running game to deception from a spread formation, hardly the kind of thing it seems the Patriots should fall for† - which suggests that this team has deeper problems than its Hall of Fame quarterback's left knee. That in itself is an unsettling thought.

Although, maybe I should have been expecting this. After all, the Dolphins were the last team to beat the Patriots in the regular season, and that time was even more of an upset - and even more of a crushing loss. That time was with Brady at the helm, the Patriots didn't even get on the board, and every member of the Dolphins was outfitted in traffic-cone-orange shoes. It was a game Kristen and I came to refer to with the statement, "What Miami game?" because the Patriots were headed for the playoffs anyway, and there were bigger fish to fry, and so it seemed the best course of action was to forget the game ever happened. In fact, this is probably the first time I've acknowledged its existence since.

Old-school Pats fans like my Dad have more animosity toward the Dolphins than I do, recalling the days when the Dolphins were dominant and the Pats were so bad not all of their games were even televised locally. So it was an especially bitter thing to some to have this latest regular-season winning streak bookended by losses to Miami. And wouldn't you know it'd be the Tuna cackling on the other side of the ball when it was time for another streak to end.

All of that said, it's pretty tough even for a Pats homer like myself to feel too terribly about this. I'm supposed to be grieving the first lost regular-season game in two years? The week after the team tied its own consecutive-regular-season-win record? Please. I'm spoiled, but I'm not that spoiled.

Even if I was, we've lost both a heartbreaking Super Bowl and our star quarterback in the last 8 months. This game was a sucker punch, but it pales in comparison.

September 14, 2008

This game carries with it a big and obvious question: What will be the true impact of Tom Bradyís absence on the Jets / Pats rivalry? With Brady out, those who see the Patriotsí 2008 season as lost are naming the Jets as the team to beat in the A.F.C. East. But are things really so simple? Itís not as if the Patriots will be playing without a quarterback ó and while Brett Favre is a great addition to Gang Green, he is not necessarily the Brett Favre of old. I think this game will be closer and harder-fought than many people are anticipating, and that the teams remain well-matched. Brady being out of the equation sets up even more of a dogfight between Boston and New York this season than in previous years, but itís not an automatic coronation for the Jets. Ö Jets, 17-14 (in the final minutes).

Yep, you saw that right - I picked the Jets to win. Specifically, what I pictured was almost exactly how this game looked by the fourth quarter, a mix of field goals and TDs, and the Patriots on top by less than a touchdown. (I pictured them with 14 points to the Jets' 10 -- instead, with 10 minutes to go in the third quarter, it was Patriots 16, Jets 10.

Here is where - I guess because Brady's injury had me in that Murphy's-Law frame of mind - I pictured the Jets and Favre mounting a comeback, a dramatic win in front of their home fans, and another week of hearing people gloat about what happened to Brady and hate on Belichick. In retrospect, I'm still not sure if I was really expecting it, or just trying to gear myself up for it as the worst-case scenario.

And it's not like I don't miss Brady, won't miss him dearly until the moment he steps back onto the field in a Patriots uniform. But as it turned out, the way Brady's absence was felt in this particular game was more subtle than I think a lot of us -- myself included-- were anticipating. Maybe because we needed reminding that there are plenty of things Tom Brady doesn't do.

Tom Brady doesn't play special teams.† The Jets started most of their drives at their own 20. The Patriots started five drives in Jets territory.

Tom Brady does not run the ball. The running game helped keep the Jets offense off the field after that 16-10 score that felt so ominous to me, and the only Pats touchdown of the game was scored by Sammy Morris, who crowd-surfed over the Jets' defensive front on a third-and-goal play. Kevin Faulk made key plays, including a salvage of a tipped pass from Cassel for nine yards at the beginning of the second quarter, and motored for 22 yards on a screen pass in the third. Arguably, Brady would've converted more Red Zone plays into touchdowns, but...

Tom Brady does not play defense. Big-time credit is due to the Patriots defense, and, yes, to the defensive mind of Bill Belichick - as it is on the other side of the ball in Eric Mangini (their opposition has the potential to be far more fascinating on the field than in their soap opera off of it). Both teams stuffed one another in the red zone throughout the first half, and Adalius Thomas and Richard Seymour were like twin blocks of granite in the running game and long-armed nightmares for Favre when he dropped back. They let Favre make his own bed, sometimes, like when Brandon Meriweather delivered one of Favre's trademark interceptions in the third quarter. Other times they just swelled up, buckled down, and made the Jets pay for their mistakes. My prediction underestimated this defense, and for that I apologize.

Tom Brady does not block. Dan Koppen won a formidable battle with Jets DT Sione Puha as Cassel dropped back with about eight minutes to go in the third quarter, freeing Cassel to find Welker at the Jets 5, and setting up the Patriots' touchdown.

Tom Brady does not kick for field goals. Stephen Gostkowski scored most of the Pats' points today - and Cassel did well enough to put him in position. Instead of a Jets comeback in the fourth quarter, what we got was another Cassel drive and another Gostkowski 3-pointer for insurance.

Tom Brady did not make the Jets commit a million penalties. The Jets: 6 penalties, 60 yards, and they always seemed to come at some crucial time. The Pats: 2 penalties for 10 yards.

Of course, there's also another edge to this for the Patriots -

Tom Brady does not play DB. The Jets figured Rodney Harrison wouldn't match up well against Chansi Stuckey as they drove for the goal line at the beginning of the fourth quarter. They were right - Harrison fell down in front of Stuckey in the corner of the end zone, and the Jets scored easily. Meriweather obviously showed improvement over last week, and Ellis Hobbs had a few good plays (which he made sure to showboat about...sigh...), but Favre sometimes looked like the old gunslinger against this secondary.

Tom Brady does not play offensive line. Koppen's nice play to set up the touchdown notwithstanding, there were still times I loudly demanded of my TV† whether or not the real issue with this team was the QB or his lack of protection, especially when Matt Cassel got sacked on three consecutive drop-backs between the second and third quarters. I'm still worried about how he got up limping after one of the hits in the second quarter (He was probably shot up with something to get him back out on the field for the third quarter, and who knows what the implications might be for next week).

But the point is, these would be points of concern with or without Brady.

And so after a week of reports of the Patriots' demise, we were all reminded, I hope, that there are 52 other players on this team whether or not No. 12 is under center - and one of the all-time winningest coaches wearing a headset on the sideline. People were quick to point out this week that Belichick's under .500 without Brady - but most of that record comes from his tenure with the Cleveland Browns, almost a decade ago. He also is still the last person to lead that franchise to a postseason win, in 1994.

If anything, this game reminded me of the Patriots' style of play at the beginning of their Super Bowl run - back when they were impressive not for blowing teams out but for finding a different way to win each week. Back when Brady was "overrated", and "it was the system" that made him successful.

This game was 2001-style Patriots football, right down to the place kicker arguably being the MVP. If it was to provide us with any clue as to what the team would be like without Brady, it would seem that clue is to be found in how New England played before Brady was Brady - which was not all that long ago.

This is not to say we can declare any kind of victory after two weeks, any more than we could declare total defeat after one. In a way it has its own kind of excitement, this mutual uncertainty between the Pats and their AFC East rivals, which I don't think will really shake out until mid-season or later.

As a Pats fan, the games are taking on a different meaning. It's not that they didn't matter before, but this season a lot is at stake for the Patriots as they try to move on from 18-1 and SpyGate without the help of Brady.† For tonight, I'm just trying to enjoy being newly hopeful after an unexpected win.

September 08, 2008

As we feared, it looks to be a torn ACL (ACL requires surgery; there have been reports he may have damaged the MCL as well). Mike Reiss†reports this statement from the team:

"After extensive tests this morning, it was revealed that New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady's left knee, which was injured in the first quarter of yesterday's game, will require surgery. He will be placed on injured reserve and will miss the remainder of the 2008 season."

I've been trying to forget about this all day, but it seems I can't go five minutes around this area of Massachusetts today - and probably not for at least the next week - without hearing the name "Brady" pop up constantly. It almost seems like there's a constant, low hum of chatter, peppered whispers of "first quarter" "ACL" "surgery"... and of course there's the steady trickle of commenters here, some of whom want us to know exactly how little sympathy they have.

The debate among New Englanders, at least as represented by talk radio on various stations this morning, seems to be between bridge-jumpers and Belichick True Believers - i.e. those who say our season is finished and those who say the system will take care of us. I don't think there's enough information after a single, chaotic regular season game against one of the worst teams in the NFL, but if there's one thing for sure, it's that the season just got a lot more interesting - all over the league.

September 07, 2008

Given the reports about the severity of Brady's injury, Randy Moss's description of his feelings during the game just twists the knife a little for New England fans:

†I was like a little kid at the candy store just hoping you would see that No. 12 come out those doors and up the steps. Like I said, every time the fans cheered I looked at that door so basically I was just snapping my neck around every time. Late in the fourth quarter and after halftime, when I knew he wasn't coming back, I don't know his injury or what happened but all I know is he didn't come back.

Al Michaels during Colts / Bears game: Patriots to be working out Chris Simms tomorrow.

Cold, Hard Football Facts: No offense, folks, but you don't simply replace a quarterback who is probably the most historically significant player in the history of the game.

Tom Brady has managed to survive the punishing onslaught of 127 consecutive regular-season and playoff games, behind only Peyton Manning and Brett Favre in all-time longevity. Brady has played through sports hernias, taped-up knees, a separated shoulder injury that has lingered for years.

And so, for the first few minutes of the first quarter, it was refreshing to see him at the helm again, maybe dinged up but stubborn and bull-headed as ever, stepping up in the pocket despite the vulnerabilities he might be hiding and the relative shakiness of the offensive line in front of him.

This is the main thing Brady brings to the field for Patriots fans - the assurance, in his eyes and in the eyes of those who play with him, that Someone is In Charge. For the first and, so far, last moments of his 2008 season, we got to relax long enough to think that once Randy Moss and Wes Welker improved at hanging on to the ball, we'd be rolling.

Instead, it was Bernard Pollard rolling, over the pile and into the flexed left knee of Brady as he stepped up into the rush to send one down the sideline to Moss. Which Moss dropped. And recovered. But the CBS cameras were already swinging back to where Brady lay, writhing on the field.

I am not a squeamish person, but I had to look away as the announcers, audibly excited at a new development to hype and rehash, replayed the collision in macabre slow motion and dissected it in ever-more-florid language.

Once the initial AUGH and ARGH and DO NOT WANT subsided, however, there emerged a sense of inevitability about this turn of events. We've been lucky with him, and he is, in reality, probably overdue for something like this. Even before today, that seemed to be something the team was acutely aware of, as Bill Belichick seemed to be paying special attention to the quarterback depth chart from the very beginning of the preseason. Until today, it was Brady's right foot that had become, as one of the CBS sportscasters put it, "the most-studied right foot in New England since Curt Schilling in 2004." Almost no one has a career of any length in the NFL without experiencing something like this - and Brady is so long overdue, we were already thinking about it.

We've been so blessed over the last six years that it also seems gauche to act like this is the end of the world, especially before we receive any word about the severity of the injury or its long-term implications.

It didn't hurt, either, that Matt Cassel picked today to put it all together. After Brady went down, the second-stringer who'd struggled through the preseason, led the team on his first scoring drive yet, and a 10-play, 98-yard drive at that. In the third quarter, Sammy Morris powered another scoring drive. The defense was also buckling down more effectively than they had in exhibition. There is, after all, more to the team than Brady, more to this team than any one player, and it's important to remember that.

But.

Seeing the numb look in Brady's eyes as trainers inspected his knee, seeing him gathered back up off the field again and helped to limp toward the sideline...watching every snap, crackle, pop and twist on that knee in the slow-motion replays...it's the worst-case scenario for any fan. No matter how many times I watch a guy I've rooted for, grown attached to, laid out on the field, and then helped off it humbled and grimacing in pain, it doesn't get easier to watch. No matter who it is.

And when that guy is your franchise quarterback, you can multiply that feeling by a hundred.

***

Conflicting emotions were also the order of the day on the defensive side of the ball, which put together some gritty series and held the Chiefs to 10 points. Richard Seymour and Rodney Harrison in particular played like animals, and Vince Wilfork was an oak tree in the middle of the defensive line. I still believe the front of the Patriots defense is its strength, though there was encouraging improvement from the secondary today.

That is, until the fourth quarter.† With about a minute to go, second-year safety Brandon Meriweather seemed to lose track of Devard Darling, who caught a pass and stretched the play deep into Patriots territory. Only a touchdown separated the teams from overtime. "There goes my guy, somebody else got him?!" my dad spoke for Meriweather in frustration as he was shown on the TV replay.

The good news: The goal line stand was successful.

The bad news: Only out of sheer luck.

The ugly: With the ball floating precariously in front of two Patriots and a Chief right at the goal line, Meriweather, flat-footed again, watched the ball fall to the ground. My dad provided another voice-over: "What the heck is that brown thing?"

The Patriots won this game. But is that really the bottom line? Maybe most weeks it would be. But the play of the day, which could have ramifications for the rest of the league, for the rest of the year - hell, possibly even for years to come - happened in the first quarter of the Patriots' season. They held on to their lead and began that season with a victory, but left the field with more questions than anyone has answers for.

September 05, 2008

The Patriots announced their captains for the 2008/2009 season. The cast includes some familiar faces, Tom Brady, Tedy Bruschi, Rodney Harrison, Mike Vrabel, and Larry Izzo, who have all been captains before. Both Bruschi and Brady are serving their seventh seasons as team captains, while Izzo is entering his eighth season as a captain. However, the list has also has some first-timers. Left tackle Matt Light, nose tackle Vince Wilfork, and wide receiver Randy Moss have all been elected captains for the first time. Of course, the most intriguing name on the list is Randy Moss, who brought a less than team-first reputation when New England traded for him last offseason. However, this selection does reenforce what Coach Belichick and QB Tom Brady have said in the past about Moss being a leader in the locker room. Now, it's offical and clear his teammates feel the same way.

August 29, 2008

I have to disagree with Jamie on one point about this game - I thought this defense showed great improvement against the run.

Okay, let me specify - against the run inside. The times the Giants broke off big runs, it was when they switched up (especially in the middle quarters of the game) and came around the edge (at times the DB's responsibility). This resulted in the YPC average Jamie cited, but I thought this game showed a real strength of this year's team for the first time - the defensive line.

Within this unit, I thought two players stood out above the others: Jarvis Green and a rookie, Kenny Smith. Green's moment came midway through the second quarter with the Giants on the Patriots' 45 yard line. Green stuffed Giants RB Ahmad Bradshaw for no gain. On the next play, the left side of the Pats defense played as a unit, closing up the gaps and scrambling to leave the Giants stymied at the 45 again.

On the third play, Carr dropped back to throw. That's when Green hit his blocker, the 6' 5", 315-pound Kevin Booth, and with three great heaves No 77 was in his quarterback's lap.

Throughout this enounter, Green kept his right hand high on Booth's jersey, and as he slowly walked Booth back toward Carr, took that right hand off Booth long enough to hook Carr around the shoulder and pull him down to the ground. Booth didn't go down with them, but it was close. I watched that play several times, but I'm still not over the immense strength Green showed - and I thought it was the finest series, offensive or defensive, from the Patriots all night.

Smith, meanwhile, came off a double team in the next series to stuff Bradshaw in the backfield for a loss. He looked powerful, huge - and also very, very, VERY big on that play.

Linebacker John Lynch, who looks like he could be Wes Welker's brother, was another bright spot. He showed wide-eyed intensity similar to his lookalike this game, and was also a big part of stuffing power runs through the gaps. Like Rodney Harrison (who got a few bone-rattling pops in on Giants WRs as well), Lynch played this game like he's only got one gear: full tilt.

DBs, on the other hand, did not acquit themselves so well. In the series where Green owned Kevin Booth, the Giants tried running the ball up the middle twice and throwing once, and never got past the 45 yard line. Once they switched up, they ran all over the Pats secondary. Lynch looked silly on one passing play for a Giants touchdown, falling down trying to catch a receiver. Kenny Smith also looked slow and clumsy trying to chase Giants backup QB David Carr. It was as if the Patriots defense, as a unit, had resolved to do one thing right this week if it was the last thing they did, and that thing was stop the run up the middle. Meanwhile, they still seemed taken by surprise on other kinds of plays.

Then, there was the offense. Cassel actually looked more collected in the pocket and seemed to read the field better, but never got close to a score. Gutierrez, who'd looked more solid than Cassel last week, played most of the game, also didn't score, and threw interception after interception. Kevin O'Connell gave the WCVB homer broadcasters something to crow about, but the opposition by that time was the Giants' C team or worse - it was enjoyable to see the Pats finally score a touchdown or two, but not something you could really carry with you into next week.

Meanwhile, the O-Line...ugh. I'm still trying to decide if Brady's absence or the compromised O-Line have been more of a factor in this putrid preseason. Part of me wondered if the presence of the key veterans on defense - Rodney and Tedy especially - has helped that unit gel quicker than a Brady-less offense.

Other times I'm just lighting votive candles and joss sticks, and making sacrifices to Jobu for Brady's health, just thinking about him stepping up in the pocket behind that line.

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